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Boss Movements: Dana White

Dana White has been a very busy man these last couple of months. With all the fights that the UFC were promoting last year and all the success they had not just in the US, but in Abu Dhabi, Australia and London, you’d think the man would enjoy a nice holiday in Hawaii or something. Apparently not, as he beganf the year with an incredible bang.

Starting off with UFC 125, he got the deal with ION TV, a deal that had a lot of people scratching their heads, due to the fact that it is one of the lowest rated English language speaking channel networks in the United States. However, the fans wanted to see the preliminary fights (thanks partly to a fantastic campaign by the guys from The Coalition Fight Music) and they got to see the likes of Phil Baroni, Marcus Davis and Jeremy Stephens for an hour.

The card was fantastic and had some great finishes, especially since quite a few people were doubting the strength of the card. However, the real story of the card was the great five round title fight between UFC Lightweight Champion, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. There was a lot of negative buzz over the internet before the fight, with some people labeling it as potentially a “boring unanimous decision win” for either fighter. However, many fans were proved wrong as the fight will go down as one of the best title fights that the MMA has ever seen. A back and forth affair, filled with drama and close finishes, only helped strengthen Frankie Edgar as a worthy champion, but let everyone who had their doubts about Gray Maynard know that he’s more than a great wrestler, but also a very good boxer as well. This is going to result in a rematch for the title, that quite a few fans want to see as there was no real winner. Dana told everyone that this would be a great fight and he was certainly right

Dana certainly hasn’t blown his wad early though, as he has plenty more great fights to promote, with MMA UK’s top 5 announced fights being;

5. Carlos Condit Vs Chris Lytle ( UFC 127)

4. BJ Penn Vs Jon Fitch (UFC 127

3. Forrest Griffin Vs Rich Franklin (UFC 126)

2. Shogun Rua Vs Rashad Evans (UFC 128)

1. Anderson Silva Vs Vitor Belfort (UFC 126)

That’s only naming a few of some of the great fights that have been announced, plus the great fights that been rumored.

Probably the biggest business masterstroke that Dana has had though is getting Brock Lesnar as a TUF 13 coach. He’s the biggest draw in the history of the UFC and even if the fans love him or hate him, they feel compelled to watch him. Having him on Spike TV (Sky Sports for the UK fans) with Junior Dos Santos as his opposing coach is also a huge deal. Dos Santos will flourish from having Lesnar on the show as it will get him some much needed exposure, and he’ll be able to show the world what his personality is like, potentially getting more people to buy the PPV than a normal UFC Countdown show would do.

As a business move, this might be one of the biggest things White has ever done with the company and a match-up between these two heavyweight beasts for the UFC Interim Heavyweight title, has the potential to be the biggest UFC PPV of all time and possibly even the highest grossing sports PPV of all time.